The field of the invention is laboratory equipment and the invention relates more particularly to equipment used for carrying out various biological testing. For many types of biological tests, it is necessary to comminute or pulverize these samples so that it may be subjected to processes such as leaching, dissolving or absorbing various materials. For many chemical tests, however, it is essential that the tissue be tested in a condition as close to its native state as possible since metabolism can occur to destroy the trace materials for which the testing is to be carried out. Such metabolism can occur in a very short span of time. It is common to use a protein precipitating liquid to stop such metabolism, but the process of pulverizing the sample often requires a span of time which permits an undesirable amount of such metabolism.
It has been common practice to subject a pair of forceps to liquid nitrogen and grasp the living tissue with the cold forceps to freeze the same before the sample is taken. The frozen tissue is then typically placed in a mortar and ground, and the ground tissue is then added to the precipitating solution. The transfer step, however, often brought about the undesirable metabolism. Although some benefit is obtained by freezing the precipitating solution and adding the frozen powdered tissue, permitting them to melt together, the problem of transferring the ground tissue to the test tube containing the precipitating medium remains.